What’s been happening with the Disability Harassment Formal Inquiry in Wales.

The Commission is undertaking an inquiry into disability-related harassment and how well this is currently being addressed by public authorities.

We are examining how disabled people, their family, friends and carers who have experienced harassment have been supported, or not, by public authorities.

It has been a very busy time in Wales with the extension of evidence-gathering due to so many people wanting to take part and tell us about their experiences. The deadline for giving evidence ended on September 17th, 2010.

We have been gathering evidence for the inquiry in a number of ways. We have been conducting interviews, as well as roundtable discussions which took place at the beginning of September in Cardiff and Wrexham, where our focus of discussion included:

addressing the causes of disability related harassment including prejudice and negative attitudes

how to enable disabled people to effectively report disability related harassment

During the autumn we will be holding focus groups as well as hearing panel sessions. In terms of the hearing panels, these will be for public sector organisations/ public service providers as well as transport operators to share information about what they are doing to meet their obligations under the Disability Equality Duty, UNCRPD and Human Rights legislation.

The Commission also held a special day at the Eisteddfod to share information about the formal inquiry and encourage disabled people to take part and give evidence.